Timo Glock fears 36-y/o F1 driver faces ‘even worse’ season than 2023

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Timo Glock fears Nico Hulkenberg faces a ‘tough year’ in 2024 as the new Formula 1 season may be ‘even worse’ for Haas than 2023 ahead of this Saturday’s Bahrain GP.

Last year cost Guenther Steiner his job as the team principal of Haas as the American squad finished 10th and last in the constructors’ championship. Team owner Gene Haas elected to not renew the Italian-American’s contract and promoted Ayao Komatsu to take up the helm.

Haas ended the year on just 12 points from 22 Grand Prix and six Sprint events with a driver line-up of Hulkenberg and Kevin Magnussen. The pair also only scored nine and three points respectively in 2023 to further secure 16th and 19th in the 22-strong drivers’ championship.

Nico Hulkenberg only scored points in one Grand Prix after joining Haas in 2023

Hulkenberg further only scored points in one Grand Prix with P7 at the Australian GP and in the Sprint at the Austrian GP with P6. While Magnussen claimed his points from P10 results at the Saudi Arabian GP, the Miami GP and also the Singapore GP in rounds two, five and 15.

Magnussen’s 10th place at the Hard Rock Stadium event further followed his best qualifying result of the season with P4. Hulkenberg had his best qualifying of 2023 at the Canadian GP, taking P2. But the German started in P5 after a red flag infringement in Q3 and finished P15.

Haas’ inability to resolve the VF-23’s woeful tyre degradation problems plagued their season no matter how well Hulkenberg or Magnussen qualified. The car tore through its Pirelli tyres in the races to see the drivers slip back. Haas’ upgrades failed to fix their overheating issues.

Timo Glock fears the 2024 Formula 1 season could be ‘even worse’ for Haas

The new Formula 1 season may not be much better for the American squad, either. Komatsu admits the VF-24 is ‘not fantastic’ and has ‘way too little downforce at high speed’. So, Glock fears Hulkenberg faces a ‘tough’ time over the 36-year-old’s second season racing for Haas.

“Of course, it could be that it will be even worse than in 2023,” Glock has told Sky Germany ahead of the Bahrain GP. “Because Haas brought a new package to the car at the end of last year, they will probably continue with that. All the other teams are coming with new cars.

“The only hope for Haas is that you could understand why they had such a hard time with tyre management. The race pace has to be better so that you’re there when there are points to be picked up. It’s going to be a tough year for Nico Hulkenberg.

“Formula 1 will quickly forget how good you are. Nico was able to show it in many qualifying sessions last year. But with the improvements of the other teams, it will be even harder for him to show how good he is. Not an easy situation for him, perhaps

“But there are updates to improve this package. He has certainly already positioned himself in discussions with other teams with a view to 2025. I hope he will then be able to take another good step.”